In sports sometimes, the odds of success are so long that beating them cements the winner into a pantheon of the greats for eternity. So it was on a hot February day in 1976, when fifteen times world champion Giacomo Agostini brought the might of the MV Agusta motorcycle Grand Prix team to a temporary circuit at an RAAF base in Victoria. Lined up against him were an assortment of locals and Kiwis on an equally varied range of machines. Agostini was the one with the heritage, the brand new exotic Italian bike, the movie-star good looks. He was, according to most of the pundits, the winner of the 1976 Australian Tourist Trophy, without even having turned a wheel. As the flag dropped, Agostini took his expected place at the head of the field, but on lap nine, Ken Blake, a small unassuming Aussie outbraked the great ‘Ago’ on his Suzuki RG500 to grab the lead, sending the partisan crowd into a frenzy. Blake held his slender margin over the Italian until the chequered flag fell, and was soon mobbed even before he managed to complete his victory lap. Ken (or Kenny) Blake was no flash in the pan, however. He already had a string of local and overseas success including a memorable solo Castrol Six Hour victory at the unforgiving Amaroo Park in 1973 on a Kawasaki z900. Now the leathers Ken Blake wore during that memorable 1976 victory over Agostini are to be auctioned in Melbourne on July 29, to raise money to fund new infrastructure at the Broadford Motorcycle Complex. The Coca Cola leathers have been donated to the Hughie Hoare Memorial Fund by their maker, Alan Lambert. Kenny Blake gave them to Lambert and his wife Pam after the win. Lambert’s gift adds to the already impressive range of items being auctioned as part of the launch of the Hughie Hoare Memorial Fund, which aims to raise $50,000 to upgrade the infrastructure at the State Motorcycle Complex at Broadford in Victoria. The launch is to be held on July 29 at The Duke of Kent Hotel 293 LaTrobe Street, Melbourne from 8.00pm. Kenny Blake was tragically killed at the Isle of Man in 1981. Tickets and more information are available from www.prestonmcc.com.au